Total has reaffirmed its partnership and financial backing
to the technology of renewable products
company Amyris, the companies said in a recent statement. Total
dedicated an $82 million funding budget over the next three
years exclusively for the deployment of Amyriss renewable
farnesene and for the production of renewable diesel and jet
fuel. Upon completion of the research and development program,
Total and Amyris intend to form a joint venture company that
would produce and market renewable diesel and/or jet fuel, as
well as nonexclusive rights to other specialty products, the
companies said.

BP has agreed to sell its 266,000-bpd Carson refinery in California and related
logistics and marketing assets in the region to Tesoro for $2.5
billion in cash. The deal value includes the estimated value of
hydrocarbon inventories and is subject to
post-closing adjustments. The company noted that the sale is
part of a previously announced plan to reshape BPs US
fuels business. BP also plans to sell its Texas City refinery,
in order to focus on its three northern US refineries, which
the company says are feedstock advantaged. Subject
to regulatory and other approvals, Tesoro will acquire the Los
Angeles-area refinery as well as the associated logistics
network of pipelines and storage terminals and the ARCO-branded
retail marketing network in Southern California, Arizona and
Nevada. The sale also includes BPs interests in
associated cogeneration and coke calcining operations. The sale
is expected to close before mid-2013. BP will sell the ARCO
retail brand rights and exclusively license those rights from
Tesoro for Northern California, Oregon and Washington and
continue to produce transportation fuels at its refinery in
Cherry Point, Washington.

Chemicals company Celanese said that a jury ruled in its
favor in litigation filed by Southern Chemical relating to the
terms of a multi-year methanol supply contract. The jury
said the contract, under which Celanese has paid Southern
Chemical about $130 million/year, should continue until its
expiration, adding that Celanese did not violate the terms of
the agreement. The contract, which expires in 2015, is valid
for Celanese operations in the US and Mexico. Celanese is the
largest methanol consumer in the US, while Southern Chemical is
the second-largest supplier (after Methanex). Under the
contract, Celanese received about 800,000 tpy of methanol from Southern Chemical.
Southern Chemical alleged that Celanese was not using the
purchased methanol solely for internal use, and was instead
shipping it to other chemical companies for more than the
contract price. Celanese officials, however, said they were
selling the material as methyl acetate and had been given
clearance to do so by the Southern Chemical president. Celanese
plans to build a 1.3-million tpy methanol plant in Clear Lake, Texas,
which would presumably replace the Southern Chemical supply
once the contract expires in 2015.

KBR and Shell Global Solutions plan to expand their
hydroprocessing technology alliance. In addition to
hydrocracking and hydrotreating, KBR will now market, sell and
provide technology and design packages for
Shells deep-flash, high-vacuum unit distillation and thermal conversion
technologies. KBR said the new alliance terms will help refinery operators that want to
improve their distillation performance to optimize assets,
minimize expenditures and capital investment and debottleneck
operations. To meet those goals, refiners can use deep-cut
vacuum distillation to maximize the
recovery of distillate from residue. The falling demand for
residue fuel oil means that refiners can use thermal conversion
technologies to convert the bottom of the barrel to higher
value products.

The US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) will pursue a full
investigation to determine the causes of the August 6 fire at
the Chevron oil refinery in Richmond, California. A CSB team of
seven investigators arrived at the refinery several days after
the fire and conducted witness interviews while reviewing
documents at the site. The fire occurred when gasoil leaked
from an 8-in. pipe connected to a crude oil distillation tower
in the refinerys crude unit. Workers
initially noted the leak and were in the process of attempting
repairs on piping connected to the still-operating crude oil distillation tower when the leak
suddenly intensified. The gasoil immediately formed a large
flammable vapor cloud. Important issues to resolve in the
investigation include understanding why the pipe that later
failed was kept in service during a late-2011 maintenance turnaround and what
procedures and industry practices exist for responding to a
leak of combustible material from a running unit. The CSB
anticipates executing a site preservation and evidence testing
agreement with Chevron and other investigative groups and
arranging for independent testing of the leaking section of
pipe to determine the failure mechanism. Both Chevron and the
United Steelworkers, which represents hourly workers at the
plant, have been cooperating with the CSB team. Chevron has
provided assurances that its personnel will freely share their
knowledge and investigative information with the Board.
Cal/OSHA, Contra Costa County and the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Kuwaits Equate Petrochemical Co. has shut down one
of its ethylene glycol units with a total capacity of
550,000 mtpy after a fire on July 31. The fire resulted from a
leak in part of a manufacturing unit. Equate said the fire was
contained and extinguished promptly, adding that production
operations of other production units were not affected. The
company anticipates that the shutdown of the damaged unit will
last six weeks.

UOP has been selected by Lukoil to provide technology to
produce blending components used to make high-octane gasoline
and petrochemicals at its facility in
Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. Lukoil will license an integrated
suite of Honeywells UOP technologies to produce
high-quality gasoline blending components, propylene and other
petrochemicals, the company said.
Russia is the third largest energy consumer in the world, and
demand is growing due to increasing economic activity. The
suite of UOP technology will be used in a new
integrated fluid catalytic cracking complex. The new units,
expected to start up in 2015, will produce more than 1 million
tpy of gasoline blending components and more than 170,000 tpy
of propylene. HP

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